Another failed cease-fire, a UN call for talks to no avail, and a new troop of foreign troops: despite diplomatic efforts, there is little chance that a new insurgency in eastern DR Congo will stop.
International envoys as well as the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo said they wanted to give peace efforts a chance to end the insurgency by the M23 rebels in North Kivu province.
Kinshasa and some Western governments say the rebels are backed by Rwanda that sees natural resources across the border, a claim Kigali denies.
The relationship between the two neighbors has been strained for a long time. M23, which is affiliated with the Tutsi ethnic group, says it is fighting to protect Tutsis from rival Hutu extremist groups.
M23 also claims the DR Congo government has reneged on promises to integrate fighters into the national army.
The UN ambassador to France and Gabon, ending a three-day visit to the region, on Sunday stressed a political solution to end the fighting, which according to UN figures has displaced more than 800,000 people.
But the DR Congo government wants the international community to impose sanctions on Rwanda and rule out negotiations with the M23.
“Let’s get serious! M23 is a terrorist movement,” Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula said on Monday.
Mamy Asumini Kayumba, a resident of Goma, a city of more than one million people increasingly threatened by the advance of M23 fighters, said talking is no solution.
M23 previously captured Goma in 2012 before being driven out by a joint Congolese-UN offensive.
“For 30 years we have lived with this brutality, it is time to end it,” said Kayumba.
For Placide Nzilamba, a civil society activist in Goma, the UN Security Council “must tell the Rwandan government to withdraw its soldiers, who are killing the Congolese and the cities they attacked.”
‘difficult position’
But facing rebels who are gaining ground and do not see the benefits of accepting a ceasefire, “DR Congo is in a difficult military position”, said Reagan Miviri, a researcher at the Ebuteli think tank in Kinshasa.
And as for negotiations, “it’s very difficult to give anything to M23 in an election year,” because President Felix Tshisekedi is expected to be re-elected in December, Miviri said.
Officials appeared reluctant to accept M23 fighters into the army, and gave them “unpopular” government jobs, he added.
Adding to the tension was the decision over the weekend by Angola, which helped broker the latest ceasefire that collapsed last week, to send military units to North Kivu.
The announcement brought back memories of the Second Congo War of 1998-2002 that involved nine African countries and nearly tore apart sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country.
The East African Community has sent a regional force made up of Kenyan and Burundian forces to monitor the theoretical retreat of M23 fighters.
Kinshasa wants troops to have an “offensive” mandate to push back M23 fighters.
But local resentment against the troops is growing, similar to the frustration seen with UN forces who have been unable to end the fighting despite being in the country for the past 23 years.
Lutundula, the DRC’s foreign minister, said the Angolan soldiers were not there “to carry out attacks but to see how things are going on the ground”.
“There is no ambiguity, Angola is in the terms of reference,” he said.